SGC proudly present Project Holodeck

Sweden Game Conference proudly present Project Holodeck. Nathan Burba and James Iliff will make two speeches at the conference in Gothia Science Park, Skövde, on October 3-4.

Project Holodeck is a virtual reality platform built with consumer facing technology, DIY off-the-shelf components, cutting-edge custom software, and creatively integrated peripherals. The goal of Project Holodeck is to bring 360-degree full-body virtual reality out of the research lab and into a fun, accessible consumer gaming platform.
- Our system is a fully embodied VR gaming platform combining the peripheral vision of Oculus Rift with motion tracking hardware. We’ve created a virtual reality playspace for two players over a network, including a virtual game world called “Wild Skies” that players interact within says Burba and Iliff. - The act of feeling strongly present in the virtual world can be a shock to many new players, but looking down and seeing your avatar moving in tandem with the body, as well as the avatar of your fellow player, is a powerful experience that is uniquely surreal. Project Holodecks goal is to stretch the limitations of what can be experienced in the emerging medium of VR gaming. - With the hardware platform we have pieced together, it is possible to explore fascinating new gameplay mechanics, narrative techniques, and virtual spaces on a single system.

The titles of the two speeches at SGC 2013 are:

• Project Holodeck: Development, Design, and Tech Challenges with Virtual Reality
  
• From Dream to Business: How Virtual Reality is Transforming Games and Entertainment
  

Backstory on Project Holodeck
Project Holodeck started at IEEEVR 2012, with Nathan Burba, James Iliff, and Palmer Luckey. We found ourselves riding in a limo with famous researchers to see a telepresence demonstration, and realized something: What if we created 90% of the immersion of a full VR installation for 1% of the cost? And what if we made games for it? We worked with VR installations using motion capture and military HMDs, and it was amazing! But few people had access to this incredible experience. So we set out to change that, endeavoring to make VR cheap, accessible, and playable. Palmer went on to found OculusVR with his Rift headset to great success, and Nathan and James launched Project Holodeck as an interdisciplinary effort at the University of Southern California’s Games program. Now graduated, our team is taking Project Holodeck to the next level with more VR experiences, accessible SDK, and refined hardware.